Ukraine’s Olympic Success Continues

The Ukrainian team arrived at the Beijing Olympics this year with their hearts set on gold and they’ve certainly achieved their goal. The national team now has five gold medals in total, as well as four silver and eight bronze medals. The various athletes are still doing incredibly well and will likely see a few more medals added to their stockpile before they head back to Ukraine after the Olympics.

Last week we discussed the teams first gold by fencing champion Olga Kharlan, as well as the four bronze medals won up to that point by Armen Vardanyan (wrestling), Natalya Davydova (woman’s weightlifting), Roman Gontiuk (men’s judo) and Illya Kyasha and Oleksiy Prygorov (men’s synchronized 3m springboard). A lot has happened since then and Ukraine.com is pleased to bring you all the updates.

In shooting, Artur Ayvazian took gold for the men’s 50m rifle prone while Petriv Oleksandr won the gold for the men’s 25m rapid fire pistol. They were not the only ones to win medals in the shooting event and Jury Sukhorukov managed to claim a shiny silver medal in the men’s 50m rifle 3 positions event. The remaining two gold medals were won by Ruban Viktor in the men’s individual archery and Nataliia Dobrynska in the athletics’ woman’s heptathlon division. In winning the gold, Dobrynska also won the Ukraine’s first gold in athletics. Fellow competitor Lyudmila Blonska joined Dobrynska on the heptathlon winner’s podium with a silver, while woman athlete Olena Antonova took the bronze medal for the women’s discus throw.

Ukraine also managed to claim a further two medals in wrestling – one bronze and one silver. The silver medal was won by Vasyl Fedoryshyn in the men’s freestyle 60kg division of the wrestling, while the bronze medal belongs to Irini Merleni who came third in the women’s freestyle 48kg. The national team’s fourth silver medal was won by Olha Korobka in the women’s +75kg weightlifting. Lesya Kalitovska fended off New Zealander Alison Shanks in the women’s individual pursuit track cycling to claim a bronze medal, while Oleksandr Vorobiov did his country proud by claiming a bronze on the men’s rings in the artistic gymnastics portion of the games. All the competitors can be extremely proud of what they have accomplished at the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. We now look forward to the last few days of the games to see how many more medals will be won by the Ukrainian team.